I hope the wise ladies on the list will be able to give me suggestions once again for a mom I am working with.

Mom is nursing a 3 year old who still nurses several times a day. She has reccurent eczema on the nipple and areola, worse on one breast - the eczema appeared when the nursling was 1y 8m old and has never truly disappeared since. It looks very typical, with cracks, crusts and peeling skin and it itches like crazy. The eczema gets worse before period and sometimes there are flare ups that last a long time and are very difficult to break. Mom doesn't have other skin conditions. 

The diagnosis is confirmed by a dermatologist who treated it initially with mild skin lotions without corticosteroids and it worked for a while, but stopped working some months ago. Now the doctor wants mom to wean and start a corticosteroid, which she is not comfortable with and delays the treatment. She is currently using just pork fat on her nipples and although the nipples and areolae look very painful, she says she feels ok if nothing touches them and if her toddler is not sucking (which the toddler is NOT happy about).

So far I have suggested not allowing the toddler to come to the breast while eating solids, always rinsing her mouth with water before sucking, coconut oil on the nipples and areola and EFAs for nourishing skin internally and of course, to get a second doctor's opinion. 

I know there are some ladies on the list who have experience with this problem and will search again the archives to try to find the info - but since it seems I am never able to navigate the Search function on the list very well,  I thought I'd better post again and maybe there will be new suggestions and ideas too.

TIA,

Christina Yaneva
National Association for BF Support
Bulgaria

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